• enumerator4829@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      Computational biochemistry is slowly getting there. Alphafold was a big breakthrough, and there is plenty of ongoing research simulating more and more.

      We can probably never get rid of animal testing entirely for clinical research, we’ll always need to validate simulations in animals before moving on to humans.

      I do however agree that animal testing outside of clinical research approved by a competent independent ethics committee can fuck right off. (Looking at you, cosmetics industry)

      • AlolanYoda@mander.xyz
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        5 hours ago

        We can probably never get rid of animal testing entirely for clinical research, we’ll always need to validate simulations in animals before moving on to humans.

        Getting rid of animal testing is the exact purpose of organ-on-a-chip research! This is actual bioengineered cultures, not simulations (not dissing on computational biochemistry - also extremely important)

        If you can test without the full animal, then models (in this context, models = what you use for testing, be it cultures or animals) based on human induced pluropotent stem cells (ie cells taken from live, adult humans and forced to revert to a stem cell status) in an in vitro setting can actually be more relevant to human physiology than live animal models.

        There are a lot of caveats (if it were easy, it would already be done), and there are barriers needed to be overcome for in vitro models to even come close to in vivo and ex vivo models. But a lot of people are investing in it, not (only) due to ethics but also due to lower model cost and better match of in vitro results with the actual effect on a live human body.

        I can give papers when I get home, if you want.

        Edit: I went on a deep dive on medical applications: suffice it to say, this is useless for behavioral experiments

    • MrFinnbean@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Yeah. Fuck those scientists. Especially the ones that have created life saving things like penicilling, insuling. And its so shitty they used lab rats to test useless things like covid vaccines lately. I mean why to use poor rats. They could just have tested the vaccines with poor people.

      And fuck cancer treatment too. Lets just treat people blindly, they are going to die anyway, why not make their last moments suffering just because you like mouses. Maybe we just should stop trying to cure cancer.

  • w3dd1e@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    For those who don’t know, this is how some labs use rats and mice when the are uncooperative. I don’t think the intent is to hurt the mouse, just to contain it briefly.

    Not saying it’s okay or not okay. Just saying why it’s like this.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 day ago

      it definitely doesn’t hurt the mouse, maybe they’re a bit uncomfortable but it’s just all-round the best solution for everyone involved

      • BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        Uncomfortable?!! No. I’ve had plenty of those serotonin potatoes as pets and they love tight spaces. A Sputnik-House is made for 2-3 rats.

        Well, 7 can fit in there, the 8th just had the head in there.

      • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Best solution would be to not use antiquated systems for testing for human consumption, a method that isn’t even that indicative of how it would react to a human anyway.

        • BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works
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          11 hours ago

          Rats are cool for testing cancer. You feel a lump the size of a pea in the morning, call the vet, and by the time you have an appointment in the evening it’s grown to the size of a pecan.

        • Narauko@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          You will never get human trials for anything that hasn’t passed animal testing until we have lab grown human organs/organ systems, but that is a ways out and also somewhat controversial. Coning partial people or parts of people needs a lot of safeguards.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        8 hours ago

        yeah! animal testing only exists to cause harm! outcomes are irrelevant - science gets off on beating up animals and THATS why animal testing exists… those sadistic pricks

        • JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz
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          6 hours ago

          I didn’t say it’s useless, but people do enjoy beating the shit out of animals. And also some research about vulnerable minorities gets screwed over because of animal testing example: autistic mice: lead and microplastic poisoning the mice and observing their behaviour. If we fed mice a shitload of fried chicken and called them N mice, the media would be mad as shit, but of course it’s completely fine when it’s not a recognized minority.

    • HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      This pic looks like the same from a post people talked about how this is used to transport lab rats around a lab, that it cam be comforting to them, comfy confinment or something. tldr the rat is safe (for a likely lab rat) and this is humane treatment.

      • stray@pawb.social
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        1 day ago

        The rat is safe in that it can’t hurt itself or others, but they feel the same about this kind of confinement as humans do. I guess whether that counts as humane is a matter of opinion.

      • FundMECFS@lemmy.cafe
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        2 days ago

        Not really. It causes them stress. “Safe” and “Humane” are variable. But it definitely isn’t the “best” restraint method.

        lifting and holding by the tail, and handling using a soft plastic restraint cone, resulted in significant increases in mean arterial pressure and heart rate compared with baseline.3 The authors concluded that being lifted in a restraint cone appeared to be the most disturbing handling method for the rats, followed by the tail method, as determined by prolonged duration of increased cardiovascular parameters as compared with the encircling or scruffing methods.3

        As for example explored by this paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10844733/

        • HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Noted, thank you…now I need to read these papers to learn the actual “best” method of restraint…even though ive never really seen a mouse in my life and likely never will need to restrain them.

          • Slowy@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            For mice it’s tunnel handling, where you just let them walk into a tube and pick that up. You do need to scruff them to hold them for actual procedures and to examine their teeth and stuff, but it’s really stressful for them to be snatched out of their home by the tail.

            For rats it’s just picking them up with your hand over their back and under the armpits and then support the bum with your other hand like you would a kitten or any other small domestic critter. Rats are generally more calm and don’t mind being picked up, mice don’t love it and will jump or run away or bite.

            • bryndos@fedia.io
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              1 day ago

              I think that really depends on the individual, some rats are skittish and don’t like being handled at all. The best way to handle them is to leave them alone.

              Humans should test their shit on themselves or on some other human that they can explain the risks to and agree compensation.

              • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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                1 day ago

                Humans should test their shit on themselves or on some other human that they can explain the risks to and agree compensation

                And medical research would grind to a halt. As unfortunate of relying on these creatures is, their fast growth, short lived, and rapid reproduction cycle makes them perfect for all kinds of research.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Unfortunately this is rather tame compared to the fucked up shit we put cute little ratties through in the name of science.

      • FundMECFS@lemmy.cafe
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        1 day ago

        I know… :(.

        I’m sure some of it is worthwhile. But knowing a couple applied researchers who work in animal labs, according to them a large amount of what is done is absolutely useless and only serves to get out a new useless product TM or publish a paper that looks good.

  • Toes♀@ani.social
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    2 days ago

    This image fills my heart with dread :[

    This reminds me of when a lab technician explained to me what happens to all the mice at the end of the experiment. 😭

    • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The fucked up part are the experiments, not the euthanasia.

      Rats have to be killed because we don’t know if they will continue to suffer after the painful experiments done on them. They can’t be let out either because it can harm the general rat population. Companies don’t give enough of a shit about keeping rats alive in rat retirement homes either.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        but also like, it’s kinda nice to not do cancer research on humans, for all that animal testing sucks human testing is almost universally viewed as 1000x worse and doing no testing at all is also unacceptable because that means we don’t decrease the amount of humans who suffer terrible diseases and deaths (which for reference can be you or people you love).

        • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Yes, rat experimentation is the cornerstone of modern medicone, but that doesn’t make it any less fucked up.

          Something can be equally good for people yet completely inhumane. It doesn’t cancel each other out.

          Do I think we should stop experimenting on rats? Absolutely not. But we can try to at least improve the general well-being of these rats and stop deliberately torture them. Peopes have done sleep deprivation experiments where a rat is forced to stay awake or fall in the water and start to drown.

      • shneancy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        which is doubly so sad because rats don’t even live that long :( if an experiment lasts 1,5 years an average rat will only live for 6 more months. a rat retirement home wouldn’t even be a big commitment

    • Nikls94@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      In my country, for a vet to pass classes, they need to put a rat in anesthesia. Those rats are all the same weight and age. I’ve adopted 3 once. They’re amazing pets but only live for up to 3 years